ESSAY分析：Cornell Johnson Essay Analysis 2013-2014

As prospective students might have noticed when the Johnson
School’s 2013-2014 application essay topics were announced earlier
this week, Cornell is shaking things up once again through a
combination of new and existing essay prompts.
The admissions committee has trimmed the essay set down from three
to two essays in total, although there are three separate parts to
Essay 2; each part focuses on a different aspect of a candidate’s
future. Finally, the school’s ever-tricky “life
story/table of contents” question returns for a sixth year running,
and although the word limit has been shortened to 300 words, the
essay is required once more for all applicants to answer.

Let’s take a closer look at each and consider some strategies
for tackling this year’s application essays:

Essay 1, “Who You Are”: You are the author for the book of
Your Life Story. In 300 words or less please
write the table of contents for the book. Note:
approach this essay with your unique style. We
value creativity and authenticity. (300 words maximum)

This unusual prompt calls for a high-level and non-narrative
overview of an applicant’s life to date.
Internalizing the “Note” for this essay, applicants should
understand that while the structure for this essay is set, there’s
still a good deal of room for strategy and creativity: candidates
are free to decide which eras or events to highlight, how to title
each chapter, and so on. Though relying on a list
format might be a viable approach, candidates will likely get more
mileage out of this essay by structuring information in paragraphs
or a series of sub-sections under broad chapter headings, offering
a description of that “chapter” in your life and drawing out the
important themes of the story. Regardless of the
format you choose, make sure that it allows you to provide an
authentic representation of yourself. Moreover,
with the word limit reduced from 400 to 300 for this essay,
applicants should ensure their writing is succinct so that they can
convey all of their points in this more limited space.

As for the content itself, the admissions committee is likely
looking for a sense of each candidate’s background, as well as his
or her trajectory and growth over time. Touch on
those events and accomplishments that are most meaningful and
important to you, highlighting the ones that have shaped your
personal development. Remember, though, that this
is a b-school application, so you will also want to share
information that is relevant to your current work and your future
objectives without too much repetition of points raised in your
other essays. The fact that the adcom has
eliminated last year’s essay on career trajectory means that this
is the only essay in which candidates can describe the narrative of
their career to date. That said, dedicating the
entirety of the table of contents to professional pursuits may not
be advantageous or allow candidates to provide well-rounded
pictures of who they are. Overall, you want to
make sure to highlight the unique aspects of your personality and
candidacy, as doing so will allow you to stand out from others in
the applicant pool.

Essay 2 “Who you turn out to be”: Please answer the following
three questions in abbreviated format. (Keep each answer in 150
words or less)

a. When did you decide that business school was the next step
for you? (Was this an epiphany or an evolutionary
process? What was the catalyst that caused you to
consider this next step?) (150 words maximum)

b. Johnson values people that make things happen for
themselves. Give an example of how you have
initiated this for yourself. (150 words maximum)

Johnson’s latest version of its career goals essay is now
divided into three distinctive questions that cover the factors
that have influenced an applicant’s decision to pursue an MBA,
their fit with the profile of a typical Johnson student and their
post-MBA plans. With 150 words allotted for each
section, brevity and directness will be key for applicants who are
trying to fit such expansive plans into just 450 words total.

Regarding the first part of the prompt, applicants have some
choice between describing their interest in an MBA as the result of
a long-term period of contemplation or one singular
event. Candidates writing about the latter should
ensure that any “epiphany” is a good fit with content for Essay
1—avoiding both direct repetition of any descriptions of the event
as well as something that seems unrelated to the key themes of
their personal and professional lives. The same
thinking holds true for applicants for whom the decision to pursue
an MBA has been an evolutionary process, as this process should
track some or all of their life story yet convey new information to
the adcom as well.

The second part of this prompt asks candidates to describe a
situation in which they have acted in line with Johnson’s values in
terms of developing leaders that take action to achieve their
ambitions. The breadth of the prompt means that
applicants can choose to describe an anecdote from either their
professional or personal lives, and candidates who are stuck on
determining which of their stories is the best fit for Johnson
would do well to learn more about the school’s unique
culture. Taking the time to learn about the
school’s campus resources, special programs and extracurricular
activities – whether through a visit to campus, conversation with
alumni or reading the Clear Admit School Guide to the S.C. Johnson
Graduate School of Management – will pay
dividends here. Furthermore, with only 150 words
to tell your story, feel free to reach out to us in order to get
feedback on which elements of your profile might be best to
highlight here.

Finally, Johnson asks applicants to describe their short-term
career goals upon graduation. Although there is no follow-on asking
“how Johnson will help you achieve this goal,” applicants would do
well to keep this inquiry as implicit as they approach this
response, perhaps including a sentence on this subject as space
allows. With the new prompt dedicated
specifically to a candidate’s “immediate” goals, it remains that
one’s short-term goals are the primary focus of this
prompt. Applicants should view this essay as
their single chance at this stage in the application process to
convey to the adcom that they have a clear vision of where they
hope to end up immediately post-MBA and several years down the
road.

There won’t be any room for a discussion of the general merits
of a business education here or describing your entire career
trajectory step by step – it will be crucial to spend the majority
of your words on being highly clear on your short-term ambitions
before providing any other supplemental insights, such as a brief
note of how this target short-term goal into your long-term
plans.

Johnson at Cornell University is a long-time leader in creating
a whimsical and interesting application process—punctuated in
particular by its “life story” table of contents essay. Last year,
this unique and creatively demanding essay was optional and limited
to 400 words, but this year, it has been made mandatory and
shortened to just 300 words. It is complemented by a staccato of
three 150-word essays. Johnson demands that candidates tell a
pretty profound story in just 750 words. Because of the school’s
“life story” prompt in particular, though, you should not lack any
opportunity to give the admissions committee a full picture of
yourself. What else could you ask for in the essay writing
process?

Essay 1: “Who you are” You are the author for the book of
Your Life Story. In 300 words or less please write the table of
contents for the book. Note: approach this essay with your unique
style. We value creativity and authenticity.

Johnson’s admissions committee makes a point of stressing in
this prompt that it “value[s] creativity and authenticity.” With
that in mind, we would like to emphasize that you do not need to
use a conventional table of contents like you would typically find
in a biography or historical text—one that would take the reader
through a chronology of your life from birth through today.
Instead, you can create a table of contents that is organized
thematically, or if you do choose to adhere to a chronological
approach, you can extend the time line deep into the past or far
into the future. Do not be constrained by what is typical—your
options are limitless!

The most important thing is that you choose an approach that
allows you to reveal a great deal about your life in an interesting
manner. To this end, brainstorm thoroughly before you start writing
and develop an inventory of the ideas you want to convey. This
essay prompt is open-ended, which means that you can delve into all
of the different aspects of your life, rather than focusing on one
specific, narrow category. Just be certain that each thing you
share continues to add to the admissions committee’s knowledge of
who you are.

For some potential inspiration, consider heading to your local
bookstore or “leafing” through your Kindle.

Essay 2: “Who you turn out to be”

Instructions: Please answer the following three questions in
abbreviated format. (Keep each answer in 150 words or less)

When did you decide that business school was the next step
for you? (Was this an epiphany or an evolutionary process? What was
the catalyst that caused you to consider this next step?)

How do you answer this twist on a classic “Why MBA” question?
Very simply, think about your actual motivations. What did in fact
inspire you to pursue this path? As the saying goes, “truth is
stranger than fiction.” There is no “right” answer to this
question—just your answer—so honestly consider what the catalyst
was for you and then write with true sincerity the story of how you
chose to attend business school. Johnson’s admissions committee
wants to understand your decision-making process and purpose, and
this is a great opportunity to reveal that to them.

Johnson values people that make things happen for themselves.
Give an example of how you have initiated this for
yourself.

As much as we love Johnson’s essay prompts, we have to admit
that this one is very poorly worded. “Make things happen” could be
understood as simply “led something,” but in the second half of the
prompt, the school uses the verb “initiated” in relation to “make
things happen.” So, which is it—led or initiated? We suggest that
to be on the safe side, you discuss a time when you initiated,
because initiation encompasses leadership.

In sharing your example, be sure to show how you initiated (and
then led), taking the reader through your process and ultimately
revealing achievement. Simply stating, “I started and was
successful in launching our new product” would not be enough. The
process of how you conduct yourself is what the school needs to
understand to get a better feel for who you are.

Be aware that you do not need to stick to a professional theme
for this essay. You could describe a time when you took initiative
in your community or even in your personal life. For example, maybe
you rallied your oldest friends and arranged a group adventure
trip, or you asked a relative to write her biography and then
engaged others in the process, thereby enriching your family’s
recorded history. We do not expect that you will have these exact
experiences, of course, but our point is that you can also
effectively convey something meaningful about yourself in non-work
spheres.

Please describe your immediate post MBA career goals.

This prompt essentially narrows the focus of a standard personal
statement down to just a goal statement. Because personal
statements (and therefore goal statements) are similar from one
application to the next, we have produced the mbaMission Personal
Statement Guide, which helps applicants write about their goals for
any school. We offer this guide to candidates free of charge.
Please feel free to download your copy today.